The present invention relates to skiing equipment. In the following description and in the claims, this term is intended to include any equipment which allows the user to slide on snow clad slopes to practice any type of skiing discipline, such as, for example skis, snowboards and the like.
More precisely, the invention relates to equipment of the type comprising a resiliently deformable structure which is able to assume a variety of curved configurations in dependence on the dynamic actions which develop during use, and which is provided with means for damping its flexural vibrations.
Various systems have already been proposed which have the purpose of damping elastic oscillations of skis. In effect, flexural vibrations of skis represent an entirely unwanted phenomenon which, especially in use at high speed or on icy slopes, produces a loss of contact with the ground, a reduced capacity to hold to a curve, less control over the path of the equipment and impacts with the ground which increase the sliding friction.
Currently, state of the art industrial ski construction provides for different layers of materials such as wood, metal, thermoplastic materials, glass fibres, carbon fibres, thermosetting resins etc to be joined together, and utilises different parameters of resistance to flexion and torsion of each of the said materials to provide skis with given characteristics of elasticity and viscoelasticity capable of partly damping the flexural vibrations. Currently, the use of spacers (the so-called antivibration plates) fitted to the centre of the ski, already widely used in competitive alpine skiing, is being extended into the tourist and amateur sectors. These spacers or plates are not truly dampers and principally have the purpose of raising the boot binding from the ground to allow greater inclination in curves.